It has become a commonplace to criticize the English translations
of Hans Christian Andersen, and, in general, English translations of
so many other major writers. In this paper, without refraining
completely from passing judgment on how 'good' translations are, I shall
concentrate on examining a limited aspect of the problem: the difficulty
for translators of rendering Danish particles and semantically vague
adverbials without any exact equivalent in English. These words are of
high frequency in the tales, as well as in Andersen's other writings, and
constitute one of the oral features of his language.

This is part of a somewhat larger project: to describe, on the basis
of the corpora in the CD-ROM Magnus, typical features of Andersen's
language in so far as it poses problems for translation into
English.2

Some of the other investigations involved in this project may be
mentioned in passing: One study looked at emotionally loaded
adjectives (Hjørnager Pedersen 1993), while another examined the syntax of a
number of mini contexts, selected so as to be representative of Andersen's
entire production of tales. The idea was to see how well the English
translations matched the Danish originals, and to demonstrate that the
syntax was more complicated in the later tales than in the earlier ones. In
fact, this did not prove to be the case: fairly complex as well as fairly
simple passages are found throughout Andersen's production. What was
interesting, however, was that the syntax of the translations did not
exhibit the same degree of variation as the originals: translations of both
syntactically very simple and highly complex tales tended to be fairly
similar. (See Hjørnager Pedersen & Appel 1995.)

Another interesting area is the study of nouns. At the moment I
am trying to assess the proportion of abstract and concrete nouns in
the tales, in the whole corpus, and in the Danish as opposed to the English
texts. Not surprisingly, it seems that abstract words are more common
in the novels than in the tales. More interesting is the tendency for
abstract words which are not in the Danish to crop up in the translations.
However, the fact that concrete nouns used figuratively are very common
in all versions would seem to suggest that a simple distinction
between abstract and concrete is insufficient as a basis for a satisfactory
description of the nominal aspects of Andersen's language.

Let us return to our 'small words', under which heading I include
prepositions. In the following discussion, then, we shall look at translation
strategies for rendering some of the seemingly less important parts of Andersen's
lexis - 'small words' like prepositions and certain adverbials - which
nevertheless are a characteristic feature of idiomatic Danish, and whose
presence, indeed abundance, are an important aspect of Andersen's style.

The problem of rendering these elements is two-fold: on the one
hand they add to the rhythm and semantic modulation of the text, so that
their absence in translation is easily perceived as a loss; on the other, they
cannot always be reproduced by one of their nearest equivalents, since
they would simply not be there - or at least not as often - in an original
English text. Some must nearly always be left out, others can be translated
or compensated for up to a point. One should at one and the same time be
on guard against surtraduction - overtranslation (cf. Hjørnager Pedersen
1987: 87) and against neglecting the semantic and prosodic features involved.

This is not the place to go into the intricacies of equivalence, which
I have dealt with elsewhere.3 Suffice it to say that in the case of
closely related languages like English and Danish, formal and dynamic
equivalence may often - but alas, not always - be the same; or in the words
of Carne Ross, it is often possible to
transpose rather than translate, i.e.
to translate word by word without any resulting awkwardness
(Arrowsmith & Shattuck 1961:3, see also Hjørnager Pedersen 1987:103). However,
this very fact may easily lead reasonably competent translators astray:
because Danish and English often match word by word, translation
word by word is attempted also in cases where it is inappropriate, as in
the case of idioms. Prepositional phrases, too, are often copied
uncritically, as will be demonstrated below.

Part I: Where Things Are: Adverbial Particles
and Prepositions

As one would expect, prepositions and adverbials of place and direction
appear fairly frequently in the Danish corpus. The figures below
(from the tales, not from the whole corpus) provide an indication of frequency:

Adverbs and prepositions + combinations in Andersen/Magnus

ud

1587

op

1257

ud i

202

op i

161

ud på

117

op på

125

ude

200

oppe

199

ude i

52

oppe i

47

ude på

33

oppe på

31

ud over

90

op over

23

ind

952

ned

765

ind i

509

ned i

157

ind under

20

ned under

10

ind på

46

ned på

71

inde

184

nede

133

inde under

2

nede under

8

inde på

6

nede på

14

hen

695

henne

29

henad

5

henne på

2

hen ad

35

henne i

18

hen på

24

henne under

1

hen over

25

The proportion between the directing and the locating prepositions
(e.g. op/oppe) seems striking, but is quite compatible with the figures
found in Dansk Frekvensordbog (Bergenholz 1992) covering the 5000
most frequent words in Danish usage:

ud is nr.

36

ude is nr.

252

op is nr.

44

oppe is nr.

498

ind is nr.

62

inde is nr.

299

ned is nr.

90,

nede is nr.

506

hen is nr.

156

henne is nr.

1285

Knud Sørensen does not address this group of words in
Danish and English Contrasted (Sørensen 1991), but in his article, "Cognate, but
sui generis" (in Sørensen 1988) he makes some observations
which seem relevant for the theoretical handling of the situation. In this
article Sørensen argues that in the case of two closely related languages it
is easiest to learn the features that are identical first, and then turn to
those which are distinctly different. The real stumbling block, which only
advanced students overcome, is the situation where the rules of usage
coincide partially and differ partially. Here, Sørensen states, if L2
has more options than L1 to express a given content, the student will tend
to use a 'foreign-looking' option whether translating from or into
L1, rather than a usual and more familiar 'native-looking' option. If that
is true, one should expect to find a substantial amount of Danisms
among the prepositions in translations, which is indeed the case, cf. below,
and Hjørnager Pedersen (1988:120-31).

The frequency of the English prepositions corresponding to the
above in Hersholt's version of the tales is as follows:

in

7536

out

1456

up

1310

down

996

This, in itself, naturally cannot be indicative of anything, since the
systems of prepositions in the two languages do not coincide, and since
the corpora are not exactly alike.4 If a translation critic suspects that
the English translator has been carried away by the Danish
prepositional usage, he can ask Magnus to give the number of probable 'suspects':

up in

112

up into

29

up over

10

up on

36

out in

96

out into

81

out over

33

out on

42

down in

80

down into

54

down under

1110

down over

1212

in under

21

in over

31

in on

109

Studying these examples, one immediately discovers a wealth of
almost certain Danisms, although in many cases it is difficult to say
conclusively whether a certain usage is in fact due to Danish influence or
not. Apart from that, the figures should be reduced by deducting all
combinations where the two words do not really belong together (wake up
in the morning, come out in a month
etc.).5

Below are some examples from Hersholt's translation. The numbers
in front of the titles refer to the official "H.C.A. eventyrkode".

3 x

'up in Jutland', e.g. We are again up in Jutland (99 "The Bishop of Börglum"); an old village schoolmaster up in Jutland (10 Galoshes of Fortune).6

'up in Denmark' - sentence opening, 109 "The Old Church Bell": Up in Denmark, on one of the green islands + 1 x 'up in Norway'.

Up in. At least 25 cases are correct English, and up to 12 are
possibly correct. The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary is also in doubt about some verbs like 'wrap (up) in something' and 'fold (up) in something'. Apart from that, it is difficult to judge translations where 'up'
is modified by 'high', e.g.: He was high up in Switzerland (10 "The
Galoshes of Fortune") though 'the country of Hjorring, high up
near Skagen in Jutland' (83 "The Marsh King's Daughter"), definitely
seems odd, whereas 'high up in the air' and 'high up in the trees' seem
acceptable. However, there are some clear Danisms:

27

"The Snow Queen", 3rd story: Up in the narrow garret there is a little dancer, ...

85

"The Stone of the Wise Men" 4: One could step out onto the leaves and up in the cup of the flowers
was a beautiful, brilliant round hall.

10

"A String of Pearls": to be up in the sixties, that is also a wonderful age! (meaning well into one's sixties; 'oppe i' is idiomatic Danish here)

A doubtful example is the following:

60

"Heartache": She delivered her certificates and took Puggie up in her arms.

Out in gives 12 times 'out in the country', three of them in opening position:

11

"The Daisy": Out in the country, close by the side of the road, there stood a country house.

25

"The Ugly Duckling": It was so beautiful out in the country.ibidem: It was indeed lovely out there in the country.

71

"Clumsy Hans": Out in the country there was an old mansion.

102

"What the Old Man Does, is Always " : You have been out in the country, of course.

119

"The Will-O'-the-Wisps " : Out in the country stands an old manor house.

16

"The Dryad": the heavy wagon that brought it to Paris from many miles out in the country.

Other examples (sentence openings):

26

"The Fir Tree": Out in the woods stood such a little pretty fir tree

78

"Soup from a Sausage Peg": Out in the world one does not come across cheese parings

120

"The Windmill": Out in the world thoughts come.

Up on is likewise found three times in the opening position;
other examples sometimes seem acceptable, sometimes less so:

3

"The Princess and the Pea": Up on top of all this the Princess was to spend the night.

71

"Little Claus and Big Claus": Up on the shed Little Claus sighed to see all the good food disappearing.

8

"The Little Mermaid": Up on deck the sailors were dancing.

12

"The Tin Soldier": He immediately set them up on the table.

13

"The Wild Swans": He lifted her up on his horse.

109

"The Bell": I'll climb up on those rocks.

55

"The Old Tombstone": (The youngest child ) climbed up on a chair.

Most of these are possible in English, but sometimes a little odd,
and their frequency in the material is possibly influenced by Danish.

Down in gives a dozen Danisms in combinations with water:

25

"The Ugly Duckling": how he likes to swim or dive down in the water.

41

"The Neighbouring Families": yes, and those lovely flowers down in the water!

83

"The Marsh King's Daughter": She dived down in the water to pluck the swamp flower.

127

"The Toad": The sun could never mirror itself down in the water.

Part Conclusion
It seems fair to conclude at this point that combinations of adverbials
of place or direction with prepositions in the Andersen translation is
unusually high for English texts, and that at least some of the
examples would not occur in spontaneous English.

Part II: How Things Are: The Small Words

Danish abounds in small adverbial modifiers with no exact
equivalent in English. Of the items on the list below, many can, in fact, be
translated by one or several English adverbials, or their loss may be
compensated for in various other ways. Frequently, however, the idiomatic
English solution is not to have them at all - which still entails a loss
in comparison with the original.

Again, it has proved difficult to find suitable discussions of
these items. Thus Diderichsen (1962) hardly mentions them in his
modern Danish Grammar - but here they are:

In the Danish original:

så

4604

nu

1895

da

1713

dog*

890

jo

670

nok

651

ganske*

517

slet

253

vel

217

rigtignok*

156

mon*

50

vistnok*

21

bitte*

19 (only in 'lille bitte')

grumme*

18

vel nok

6 (1)

Only the words with * have no homonyms, so manual accounting
for words like så, nu,
da etc. will obviously take some effort. The
following discussion looks at only three words: two without any natural
equivalent in English, jo and nok, and one where the problem is homonymity,
så.

Jo
Jo is distributed fairly evenly, mathematically, between early and
late tales, with some few tales without jo, and two with clearly record
numbers: 2 "Little Claus and Big Claus" (1835) has 21 x
jo in 11 pages, and 125 "The Porter's Son" (1866) has 18 x
jo in 16 pages. Below follow five of each with translations from Dulcken:

"Little Claus and Big Claus":

det er jo kun den ene Hest, der er din

for only the one horse is yours.

der er jo en deilig Seng

that is a capital bed

han vidste jo, at den stakkels Mand ikke kunne taale at se Degne

for he knew the husband could not bear the sight of a clerk

lille Claus kunde jo ikke slippe ud

for Little Claus could not get out

det er jo en hel Omvei

there's a long way to go round

Little Claus uses jo very often, also to initiate speeches; but
generally there is no statistical evidence indicating that the small words serve
as markers of class, although I suspect this to be the case. What they
do definitely convey is a sense of the Danish hygge, as when the old
count says that 'her glide [gammel tid og ny tid] jo godt i hinanden' (cf. below). It is, indeed, an important aspect of the Danish small words to create a world of Gemütlichkeit and warmth, which is decidedly
more important than pride, pomp or circumstance.

"Old times and modern times," said the Count. "They meet here with loving embraces!"

han vidste jo at bevege sig og udtrykke sig med et Kjendskab

Why, he knew how to carry himself and to speak with knowledge and refinement.

Nok
Out of 50 examples, 22 do not translate Danish
nok, 14 paraphrase, 3 use well and 2 very well, 3 probably, 2 easily, and 4 adverbials are
represented with 1 item each: still, indeed, hardly, most likely.
Translations are from Dulcken. Examples:

(The translation is not exact, but idiomatic; it will not disturb English readers.)

very well

40

"The Shadow": Men De selv hører jo ikke til det Almindelige, og jeg, det veed De nok, har fra Barndommen traadt i Deres Fodspoer.
But you yourself don't belong to common folks; and I have, as you very well know, trodden in your footsteps from my childhood upwards.

probably

23

"The Galoshes of Fortune": Det er nok, - tænkte han - et Kunstkabinet, hvor de have glemt at tage Skildtet ind!"
"That is, probably a museum of art," thought he, "where they have forgotten to take down the sign."

easily

42

"The Old House": Man kunde nok see at de [andre Huuse] vilde ikke have noget at gjøre med det gamle Huus.
One could easily see that they would have nothing to do with the old house.

"The Emperor's New Clothes": troede han nok, at han ikke behøvede at være bange for sig selv, men han ville dog sende nogen først for at see, hvorledes det stod sig.
He believed, indeed, that he had nothing to fear for himself, but yet he preferred first to send some one else to see how matters stood.

Så
In scanning Hans Christian Andersen, one notices that in his early tales så is used mostly to mean 'then' and 'as as', whereas in his late tales så is used much less, and then most often in the meaning 'so'. Could this be an indication that, from his early emphasis on the
conversational tone, Andersen subsequently turned to emphasising the lyrical tone?
Cf. the following examples from 1 "Fyrtøiet" and from 136 "Dryaden".
The translations are from Dulcken.

"The Tinder Box":

Saa mødte han en gammel Hex paa Landevejen.

And on the way he met with an old witch.

Hvad skal jeg saa nede i Træet?

What am I to do down in the tree?

Saa ser du tre Døre, du kan lukke dem op ...

Then you will see three doors, these you can open ...

"The Dryad":

Hun følte sig saa lykkelig i det skjønne Frankrig

She felt so happy in the beautiful France

Frankrig var saa udstrakt og herlig, men

France was so great and so glorious, but

... en lille Pige, saa pjaltet, saa fattig, men deilig at se paa

... a little ragged, poor girl, but a pretty one to look at

Toner saa bløde og stærke som Dommedags-Basunen

tones that were at once rich and strong, like the trumpet of the Last Judgement

det vidunderlige Nye, og dog saa Kjendte

the marvellous new things, that seemed yet so familiar

Husene stode saa høje, saa nær paa

the houses stood there, so lofty, so close!

hun troede at fornemme en Luftning derfra, saa ren og mild

she thought she felt a clear pure stream of air which went from them

Der lød et Suk, saa smerteligt dybt.

A deep, painful sigh was heard

The first type is often changed or left out, whereas the second is easy
to translate - though it is perhaps also easy to exaggerate the use of
it. Constructions like "so great and so glorious", though possible,
seem rarer in English than in Danish; however, as yet there is not
sufficient statistical evidence to back up this assertion.

Conclusion

A tentative conclusion would seem to be that it is normally possible
to render the shade of meaning that is found in the Danish 'small
words', but that doing so contributes to making the language of the
translation look non-standard. Often the best immediate solution is to leave
out these words. But the cumulative effect of such omissions,
combined with simplification of syntax and verbatim copying of
prepositional phrases that are idiomatic in Danish, but not in English, is to make
the English look strange and definitely of poorer quality than the
Danish original.

Notes

1. I owe this term to Dr. Svetlana Klimenko, who has also helped me with the
compilation of the data on which this article is based. tilbage

2. The texts available on the CD-ROM
Magnus are: Andersen's Tales in English,
tr. Hersholt + six Danish texts: Erik Dal's ed. of the
Eventyr og Historier (with Billedbog uden
Billeder), Fodreise,
Skyggebilleder, Improvisatoren,
O.T., Kun en Spillemand. Dulcken's translation of a fair selection of the tales is now available
in machine-readable form. It is being processed for inclusion in the Magnus corpus. tilbage

5. The first column above shows the total figures; from
down under, these have been supplemented with a second column showing the reduced figures. tilbage

6. Actually, the Oxford Advanced Learner's
Dictionary in meaning number 2(c) for
up recognizes the usage: They are up in London; she lives up in the Lake
District, they moved up north and so on, just as in Danish. There is no warning against
using this construction at the beginning of a sentence, but no such examples either.tilbage